Behind the code: How developers work in 2025

How are developers working in 2025? Docker surveyed over 4,500 people to find out, and the answers are a mix of progress and ongoing pain points. AI is gaining ground but still unevenly used. Security is now baked into everyday workflows. Most devs have left local setups behind in favor of cloud environments. And while tools are improving, coordination, planning, and time estimation still slow teams down.

AI adoption varies widely

Overall, only 22% of respondents use AI tools in their workflows. In IT and SaaS, that number rises to 76%. Some industries report as little as 1% adoption, while others report up to 84%.

When it comes to building AI and machine learning apps, only 26% of users feel confident preparing high-quality datasets. Data preparation and trust remain major roadblocks.

Developers have mixed feelings about AI. While 59% say it’s overhyped, 64% say it makes their work easier. Use is also increasing, with 65% of users reporting more use compared to last year.

ChatGPT is now the most used AI tool, growing from 46% to 82%. Copilot rose from 30% to 57%, and Gemini from 19% to 22%.

Different roles use AI in different ways. Senior developers use it for documentation and testing. DevOps teams use it for docs and help with the command line. Software developers rely on it more for research and test automation. Dependence on AI ranges from 0 out of 10 among senior devs to around 7 out of 10 for DevOps teams.

Security is everyone’s job

Only 20% of companies outsource security. Almost every organization surveyed said security is a concern.

Developers, leads, and ops engineers all help out when vulnerabilities are found. Common tasks include fixing issues, checking logs, and running scans.

Security tools are more integrated into workflows than before. However, classic tools are falling out of favor. SonarQube dropped from 24% to 11% usage. Dependabot is at 8%, while Snyk and AWS Security Hub are each at 7%.

Interestingly, security doesn’t show up as one of the top blockers for developers. It ranks below planning and coordination tasks, which suggests that security work is becoming a normal part of the process.

Non-local and container environments lead

Developers are moving away from traditional local setups. 64% use non-local environments, cloud-based or remote, as their main setup. Only 36% still use desktops or laptops.

Remote tools like Codespaces or Gitpod increased from 8% to 12%. Personal cloud environments doubled from 11% to 22%. Ephemeral environments saw a small drop from 12% to 10%.

There’s a divide in container use. 92% of IT professionals use containers, up from 80% last year. But only 30% of all respondents report using them. This likely reflects IT’s continued shift toward microservices and modular architectures.

Productivity and inner-loop friction

Developers continue to struggle with coordination tasks. It’s hard to estimate time, plan work, review pull requests, and debug production issues. These are the top blockers across roles.

Time estimation is the biggest challenge, flagged by 31% of IT professionals. Planning and pull request reviews are also common pain points.

On the bright side, developers report that configuring and debugging in development is relatively easy. Fewer than 10% said it’s a problem. But production debugging and security-related work are still challenging for about 9% of respondents.

Work culture plays a role too. Developers value work-life balance (39%), remote flexibility (38%), and flexible hours (37%).

However, career growth, recognition, and doing meaningful work rate lower. These priorities scored between 33% and 38%. Developers are happy with the flexibility but want more impact and visibility in their roles.

What’s new this year

• The survey reached a more diverse range of industries, not just IT and software.
• Python overtook JavaScript as the most-used language, with 64% using Python and 57% using JavaScript. Java is at 40%.
• MongoDB is now the most-used database at 21%. MySQL/MariaDB and Amazon RDS are close behind at 20%, pushing Postgres out of the lead.
• OS usage remains steady. Linux is at 53%, macOS at 51%, and Windows at 47%.
• Spring Boot is the most-used framework at 19%, followed by Angular, Express.js, and Flask at 18%. Top developer tools include GitHub, VS Code, and JetBrains IDEs. GitHub Actions, GitLab, and Jenkins lead in CI/CD. Terraform, Ansible, and GCP dominate infrastructure provisioning. Grafana, Prometheus, and Elastic are the top monitoring tools.
• Internal developer portals are still rare. Only 7% use them, though usage jumps to 36% at large companies with more than 5,000 employees.
• Open-source contributions dropped. Among IT professionals, 48% contributed last year, down from 59%. Across all industries, only 13% contributed.